Larry Gennari

AI, Ikigai, and the new world of work

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Class is back in session, and educators at every level are struggling with how best to position students for future success in a rapidly changing world. That’s a big task, especially given developments in artificial intelligence and the automation it will bring. According to experts, most jobs in manufacturing, construction, finance, tech, and professional services aren’t going away — but they will change immeasurably, and AI will transform them, allowing people to do things faster, more efficiently, and at higher levels, leaving more room for strategy, creativity, and well, thinking. 

So will we use that extra time intentionally, to think more about how to make a living and also how to make a life? We should. And for the sake of this next and newest generation of workers, we can — with few new insightful books.

To be sure, even without the press of AI, the best companies now are focusing on providing more dignity and meaning to the daily grind of work. That’s essential for building a sustainable competitive advantage, retaining employees and enhancing the bottom line, according to MIT Professor Zeynep Ton. In her thoughtful book The Case For Good Jobs, Zeynep details how an all-too-familiar, relentless focus on cost-cutting and profits has led to a culture of low pay, high turnover, and low expectations at many companies, public and private. Zeynep persuasively argues that managers need to move beyond the shallow “no one wants to work anymore” lament, examine the specific “whys,” and adopt a “good jobs strategy” built on the expectation that motivating and paying employees to help clients and customers will lead to greater satisfaction, deeper meaning, and ultimately more robust profits. Her examples of the good jobs strategy in action at Costco, Trader Joe’s, and QuikTrip are well worth reviewing. 

An entrepreneurial approach to career and life 

Of course, these days, thinking about AI also is causing considerable anxiety for important stakeholders adjacent to the workforce, namely, parents. Planning is what we do, and from early on, we want our kids to engage in useful learning, explore their unique passions, and otherwise be well prepared to take on a productive and rewarding career that offers financial independence and stability. The challenge is that while we are planning, the world is changing. The days of starting and ending a career with the same employer are just about over. For that reason, today’s generation of workers will be best served by acknowledging their time, talents, and passions as a portfolio of interests to be balanced and rebalanced to serve different objectives throughout their working lives, according to HBS Professor Christina Wallace. In this smart and practical book The Portfolio Life, Wallace, who graduated college with two majors, three minors, and 50 extra credits, recommends that today’s grads take an entrepreneurial approach to career and life planning based on diversification, connection, and lifelong learning. Will the portfolio life become the new normal?  It’s an intriguing read.

Indeed, a “portfolio” development process probably needs to start even earlier, and in middle school, according to educator and non-profit CEO Jeany Eddy in her forthcoming must-read book: Crisis-Proofing Today’s Learners  Given the increasingly uncertain return on investment for a four year college degree, most kids would benefit from exploring a variety of pathways to a good job and stable future, whether through trade schools, apprenticeships, or specialized training in coding, alternative energy, and infrastructure and transportation, and sooner rather than later. Eddy, the CEO of American Student Assistance (whose Board I chair), urges early contemplation of Ikigai, the Japanese life harmony concept centered on basic questions: what do you love, what are you good at, what does the world need, and what can you get paid to do.

Mark Erlich, fellow at Harvard’s Center for Labor and a Just Economy, reinforces that message in his book: The Way We Build: Restoring Dignity to Construction Work. Erlich maps out the history of the building trades in the twentieth century and the continuing role of unions in negotiating for the improved wages, conditions, and benefits enjoyed by many industries today. These are good solid jobs. Moreover, building things provides meaning. Even with AI, infrastructure spending will continue to provide substantial opportunities for young people interested in obtaining specialized skills in industries on which we all depend. 

The world of work is changing faster than ever before, thanks in part to AI. Now is the time for leaders, policymakers, and most especially parents, to embrace the future and restart a conversation about the dignity and purpose of work.

Read in the Boston Business Journal

Authors & Innovators is an occasional column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, law professor, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.  Gennari also teaches Project Entrepreneur, a business fundamentals bootcamp for returning citizens, at BC Law School.

AI is here, so now what?

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The age of artificial intelligence has arrived. Congress is holding hearings on the dangers of AI-assisted deepfakes, scams and misinformation. Venture capital firms are anxiously prioritizing pitch decks with AI at the center and “as a service,” and the Screen Actors Guild has seen the future and it involves AI-generated performances for no additional pay. Seems as if everyone is grappling with the profound implications of a brave new world shaped by machine learning.   

To be sure, generative AI now is capable of doing knowledge work that none of us could have imagined five years ago. Does that mean, for example, that AI might replace lawyers (shudder…)? In some areas, maybe, but the tools still need significant work and they won’t replicate human judgment and creativity. This past June, a federal judge in New York sanctioned two lawyers who submitted a legal brief that included six fictitious case citations generated by an AI tool that did the “research.” (Note to my law students: I always check citations and every Latin phrase.). How then can decision makers and knowledge workers prepare for what lies ahead? Simple. Step back, lean in with curiosity, and as always, dive into the unknown with a few essential books.     

Chat GPT and similar AI technologies can learn, evolve and operate with sophistication when fed the right content and data. Of course, our human brains already do this, and in fact, we can amplify our learning, restore our mental health and cultivate even greater creativity if we regularly expose our brains and selves to the arts, according to the fascinating new book Your Brain on Art: How The Arts Transform Us, by Johns Hopkins expert Susan Magsamen and Google product designer Ivy Ross. Several regions across our brain work together to determine saliency, so that we can sort, recall and process information.  The emerging field of neuroaesthetics, or neuroarts, is focused on how music, movies, art, dance and poetry connect those regions, building stronger synapses and literally rewiring your brain for enhanced memory formation and deeper connections. This is compelling stuff. I was particularly intrigued by the example of MIT’s pioneering work on how treatments combining light and sound (at 40 hertz, close to the lowest “E” on a piano) can activate microglial cells and possibly erase beta amyloid brain plaque in Alzheimer’s patients. Will ChatGPT inspire new and different art forms to similar positive effect?

In the meantime, business leaders hoping to use art (analog or AI-generated) to enhance team connections may want to start with comedy. Why not an all-hands screening of the iconic Will Ferrell movie Anchorman and a group discussion of Kind Of A Big Deal, the hilarious and insightful new book by NYU Professor Saul Austerlitz? For fans of Anchorman, now almost two decades old, the behind-the-scenes history of how the final script and casting came together is revealing and fun. Austerlitz also details the many challenges Ferrell faced in getting the film financed. The whole Anchorman project encountered many rejections and was a no-go until Ferrell’s unexpected success in the film Old School. Funders appreciated Ferrell’s tenacity and liked the storyline, but wouldn’t back it unless it was similar to a prior hit. Sound familiar? Tech entrepreneurs pitching investors will recognize the “chicken or the egg” conundrum and appreciate the importance of an original story or pitch in completing a round. Would AI have changed the outcome? Probably not: Ron Burgundy is a unique character from the mind of Will Ferrell. Per Ron: “People know me. I’m very important. I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany.”

Finally, who uses AI tools and how they use them will be critical for most businesses. For that reason, I strongly recommend that every CEO and board member read psychology professor Jean Twenge’s new book: Generations: The Real Difference Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents — and What They Mean For America’s Future. This data-driven book based on survey data from more than 39 million people across generations is revelatory, incisive and surprising. If you want to better understand how team members and target customers — from Boomers to Gen-Zers — consume, process and communicate all sorts of information, you need to add this book to your stack.

These are early days for AI. How can we use it to enhance creativity, connection and communication in our own lives and beyond? Fasten your seatbelts, we are about to find out. 

Read in the Boston Business Journal

Authors & Innovators is an occasional column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, law professor, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.  Gennari also teaches Project Entrepreneur, a business fundamentals bootcamp for returning citizens, at BC Law School.

On the road, and paving the way for change

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School is out, summer is here, and for most of us this again will be a time of rest, reflection and reconnection. After the last few summers close to home, we’re also now ready to hit the road again, anxious for a change in scenery. I’m hoping that more than a few people, inspired by Kerouac, Steinbeck, or even Chevy Chase, will embark on a cross-country trip to explore more of America from the freedom of the open road. For those mired in the day-to-day of economic turbulence, partisan polarization and negative news, a trek along Route 66 might offer renewed hope, broader understanding and a change in the way of looking at our shared problems and common goals. How might an inspired business decision maker and strategic thinker prepare for such an auspicious journey? By taking along a few good books (as if you had to ask).

Of course, like most other trips these days, this begins with Waze and a strategy for parking at stops along the way. In fact, parking itself is one of the issues that divides us, confounds us and prevents us from being our best collective selves, according to journalist Henry Grabar, author of the entertaining new book Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains The World. We want free parking right out front, any time, every time, and we are willing (often quite literally) to fight for it. Grabar chronicles how we have relegated much of the nation’s most valuable real estate to car storage — much of that space (in publicly financed stadiums (for example), unused and ignored most of the time. “Parkitecture” determines the design of new buildings, the fate of old ones, traffic patterns, and the viability and livability of our shared public spaces, according to Grabar. I found his description of Chicago’s recent and disastrous 75-year lease of its parking meters to a group of investors led by Morgan Stanley riveting and his take on mandated parking as the prime obstacle to affordable housing insightful. Parking in America, and its priority in our professional, social and financial lives, requires a bold and decisive reimagining.

Are we up to that task? Could a few people, refreshed from a family road trip and inspired by scenic vistas, spark major policy changes around parking and urban planning to improve our communities? Yes, probably, and not so fast, according to policy experts Greg Berman and Aubrey Fox in their new book: Gradual: The Case For Incremental Change in a Radical Age. Despite calls from politicians and activists on both sides of a variety of controversial issues, especially on hyper-polarized social media, progress in areas such as climate change, Social Security expansion and criminal-justice reform, has been incremental, the result of the gradual give-and-take built into our American system of government. Berman and Fox’s take on immigration, the media’s pejorative coverage of it, and how some unlikely states are leading the way forward was especially thought-provoking.

Change, like memorable travel, often requires patience, vision and leadership. Someone has to chart the course and remain steady when things don’t go as planned. In King: A Life, Jonathan Eig tells us how Martin Luther King Jr. did just that. Eig’s authoritative biography of King, the first in decades, is masterful, detailing how King moved from protesting Jim Crow laws in the South to opposing segregation in the North in cities such as Chicago and Detroit. Eig draws on archival sources and dozens of interviews to present MLK in all of his complicated humanity. He traces MLK’s travel through the U.S., detailing his frustration, insecurities and fears, and revealing an America fraught with inequality and division but also receptive, in many disparate places, to King’s inspired message of peace, hope and economic justice. To my mind, the best books about leadership don’t use that word in their title. This surely is one of them.

Finally, not every summer road trip will include only nonfiction titles. I’d also strongly recommend a playlist that includes Chris Stapleton’s aptly named Traveller, an amazing album from a once-in-a-generation talent, and two novels for non-strategic, poolside reading: West with Giraffes, which is Lynda Rutledge’s engaging coming-of-age adventure, and Ghost Music, An Yu’s haunting story of grief, music and self-discovery.

With the promise of summer rolling out before us, here’s hoping that we all have a chance to “get out there” and reflect on the collective challenges ahead. You might even be surprised at where you might end up.

Read in the Boston Business Journal

Authors & Innovators is an occasional column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, law professor, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.  Gennari also teaches Project Entrepreneur, a business fundamentals bootcamp for returning citizens, at BC Law School.

Woke, broke, or bespoke?

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Of all the sources I consulted for a definition of “woke,” the satirical news site The Onionseems to capture it best, in a series of incredibly funny, apocryphal quotes attributed to random politicians, celebrities and business leaders.

My favorite: “Whatever it is, we need a few hundred op-eds to nail it down.”

These days, businesses large and small are trying to reach customers, grow revenue and build a sustainable competitive advantage — all while navigating cultural fault lines. Just this month, Florida, like Texas and Kentucky, enacted a law barring the use of state funds to “promote” environmental, social and goals. Additionally, Disney, Anheuser-Busch, Maybelline and other consumer-facing companies are managing their own “anti-ESG” and “woke-related” controversies as they balance short-term profits with long-term goals.

So how can a thoughtful business leader pursue a growth strategy in these fraught times? Not easily, but as always, business planning should start with a few new insightful books.

For starters, let’s acknowledge the considerable angst driving these hot-button topics. Corporate monopolies; regulatory gaps, especially in tech; income inequality; and the rapidly evolving nature of corporate responsibility overall are important issues at the forefront of many strategic conversations. In the new book Chokepoint Capitalism, writer and tech expert Cory Doctorow and law school professor Rebecca Giblin argue that we are in a new era of “chokepoint capitalism” with companies like Amazon, Google and Facebook wielding disproportionate and exploitative influence over creators, intellectual property and much of what we read and put on our playlists each day. Their narrative of how concentrated corporate power in news, publishing, and music, in effect has “captured” American culture is compelling and their suggestions for “braking anti-competitive flywheels,” including copyright law changes, are sensible calls to action.

Indeed, an increasing number of critics say that legislative reforms are urgently needed to curb the excesses of capitalism, especially in private equity. Brendan Ballou, a federal prosecutor who served as special counsel for private equity at the Department of Justice and the author of Plunder: Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America, lays out his case that Blackrock, Carlyle, KKR and other PE firms now have become the largest employers in the U.S. in a variety of industries, ushering in a “New Gilded Age.” He persuasively outlines how the largest PE firms’ relentless and singular profits-at-all-costs strategy has been detrimental not only to portfolio company employees and retirees but also to consumers as they pursue homeownership, nursing home care, health and property insurance, fair lending — even responsible oversight of the nation’s prison systems.  Ballou’s concerns about industry consolidation, privatization of public services, political lobbying and the notorious carried interest loophole are well-reasoned and his practical and detailed proposals for systemic reform also are well worth the read.     

Small wonder that concentrated economic power and profit are prompting a wholesale reassessment of the purpose and responsibility of business. Does capitalism need to be reimagined, or is “wokeness” and ESG — in the words of one Congressman last week — “just window dressing for … activism and … ideology.” Turns out, we’ve been here before, and the answer to these questions has been evolving at least since the early 19th century. In his outstanding new book, Deeply Responsible Business: A Global History of Values-Driven Business, HBS professor and business historian Geoffrey Jones challenges head-on the notion that for-profit leaders have never be virtuous while chasing the bottom line. 

Jones chronicles the business lives of “deeply responsible” business leaders ranging from chocolate pioneer George Cadbury and retail visionary Edward Filene to tech innovator An Wang and activist-turned-business titan Anita Roddick. Jones doesn’t sugarcoat the personal challenges and business obstacles these leaders faced, but instead he focuses on the values that motivated them to embrace strategic goals beyond traditional income-statement metrics. This is a timely and insightful read. Across cultures and time, Jones argues, deeply responsible leaders have done three basic things: sold genuinely useful products and services, engaged stakeholders with respect and humility, and believed in the importance of community and their business’s role in it. Whatever some might call those practices in a speech or letter to shareholders, they certainly aren’t new and we need more of them now.

Overheated political rhetoric will make government reforms for today’s challenges more difficult, at least in the short term. In the meantime, corporate leaders should be thinking more broadly and strategically about the constituencies they serve and the communities they might help build. That may or not be more “woke,” but it certainly is more responsible, and we’ll all be better off.

Read in the Boston Business Journal

Authors & Innovators is an occasional column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, law professor, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.  Gennari also teaches Project Entrepreneur, a business fundamentals bootcamp for returning citizens, at BC Law School.

Talking, and not talking

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In the mockumentary Best in Show, Sherri Ann Cabot (played by the incomparable Jennifer Coolidge), sitting beside her addled, wizened husband, 40 years her senior, relates what they have in common: soup, snow peas … and also, she coos after pausing, “talking and not talking.” In fact, she adds, they could “not talk or talk forever and still find things to not talk about.” 

This could be us too. We love communicating, and we use words every day, all day, in so many media and contexts. For you, the C-suite executive, co-founder, team builder and manager, that should mean talking and not talking thoughtfully, and of course, to do so expertly, you should be reading a few new insightful books.

For his book Magic Words: What to Say to Get Your Way, Wharton Professor Jonah Berger parsed thousands of movie scripts, academic papers and online reviews to identify how language powers influence and creates impact. Readers will appreciate Berger’s actionable “six magic word” framework for (i) activating agency, (ii) conveying confidence, (iii) questioning carefully, (iv) leveraging concreteness, (v) employing emotion, and (vi) framing similarity and difference. This is great stuff. Berger seamlessly covers the intricacies of can’ts vs. don’ts, hedging words that detract, and how to use emotion to connect to people you don’t really know. Among his essential advice: Be an active reader, ditch the “ums” and “uhs,” and for their own sake, stop telling your kids they’re smart.

However, before you employ your enhanced word skills, know that leaders who talk less achieve more. So says Dan Lyons, bestselling author and writer for the hit show Silicon Valley, in his fun and entertaining new book: STFU: The Power of Keeping Your Mouth Shut In An Endlessly Noisy World. We’re all overtalkers, Lyons explains, and in our eagerness to share everything, in real time, all the time, we fail in negotiations, meetings and, often, in relationships, both business and personal.  Lyons argues that we need to work much harder and even more intentionally at deep and active listening, and he shows how it can be done in a variety of situations, simple and complex, at home and at work. If we can become more like Tim Cook, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Albert Einstein and master the art of shutting up, we’ll be better off in body, mind and spirit.

Journalist and MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan would agree with this, and in his useful new guidebook, Win Every Argument: The Art of Debating, Persuading, and Public Speaking, he advises leaders to start with quiet, deep and thorough preparation. Armed with demonstrable facts, you can then listen critically, absorbing and processing, and also listen empathetically, connecting with the speaker and trying to see the world through their eyes. Hasan is a great storyteller and he uses compelling examples from historical debates to emphasize these techniques. I loved his chapter on “Gish Gallopers,” those all-too-familiar commentators, politicians and debaters who try to bury adversaries, including lazy reporters, in a torrent of incorrect, irrelevant and idiotic arguments, so much so that time and media debate formats don’t allow for adequate responses. Arguments large and small are a part of everyday life. As Hasan would explain with his Rule of Three, using them to inspire, inform and persuade takes practice, learning and time.   

Just starting an argument can mean saving lives. Saket Soni, labor organizer and activist, gave an urgent speech in Hindi to an assembled group of migrant workers trapped in a squalid “man camp.” The crowd was silent and grumbling. To make his point, he had to start all over again, this time in English. His huddled, desperate audience, men from Tamil Nadu and Kerala who barely knew Hindi or English, had scraped together $20,000 each for the chance to live in the US and work on hurricane-damaged oil rigs in Mississippi in 2006. 

Soni’s new book, The Great Escape: A True Story of Forced Labor and Immigrant Dreams in America, is a riveting page-turner and one of the best books I’ve read so far this year. Soni’s rhetoric and perseverance and the worker’s endurance and determination reveal an unforgettable and infuriating story of forced labor in modern America.  Well-chosen words, especially from courageous people at just the right time, can have powerful consequences.

In the end, we use around 16,000 words a day, according to estimates cited in Magic Words. As leaders, parents and friends, when we choose and position them carefully, we can make more of them count. And that’s certainly something you should talk or not talk about after reading these incredibly worthwhile books.

Read in the Boston Business Journal

Authors & Innovators is an occasional column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, law professor, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.  Gennari also teaches Project Entrepreneur, a business fundamentals bootcamp for returning citizens, at BC Law School.

Truly, madly, and sometimes deeply with Philomena Cunk

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Philomena Cunk, the irreverent, confoundedly misinformed journalist on the Netflix series Cunk on Earth, tackles topics head on. Armed with notes just handed to her, insights from her friend Paul, research on YouTube, and her own life experience, the intrepid Cunk (comedian Diane Morgan) interviews distinguished experts on topics ranging from evolution and religion to history, music and the rise of technology. I’ll admit upfront: I love this kind of goofy humor, built as it is on challenging norms and asking unserious questions of very serious people. Cunk’s voiceover intros are hilarious: “Because no one had invented camouflage yet, the British troops of the time wore bright red coats and were consequently shot in the thousands, while looking amazing.”

Yet, for business decision-makers, the truths that make Cunk both funny and insightful pose very real challenges. What makes information reliable, authentic and actionable? Is that expert or my team telling me what they really think? How do I make rational decisions in an era of deep fakes, disinformation, and general distrust? Indeed, this month, the U.S. Supreme Court could address some of these very questions when it hears arguments in a landmark case involving Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which provides social-media companies broad liability protection for user-posted content. A decision should come in June. In the meantime, what’s a manager to do? As usual, and unlike Cunk, I’d recommend a few good books.

If news about the world and angst about the future have you unsettled, that’s “normal,” according to Rohit Bhargarva and Henry Coutinho-Mason, trend experts and authors of the engaging new book The Future Normal: How We Will Live, Work, and Thrive In The Next Decade. The key, they say, is to more deeply consider the future and plan your place in it. In 10 short, topical chapters, the authors take readers on a journey, identifying emerging trends in areas including learning, media, health, wellness, and remote work, showcasing the “instigators/”innovators responding to them, and positing how we might use innovation collectively for a better, more just and sustainable world. I was especially intrigued by the chapter on “Certified Media” and the startups addressing the proliferation of AI-generated disinformation. Can more technology restore trust in information and news? Would media outlets support a certificate or standard that authenticated all images and videos before publications? This book will leave you thinking — while Cunk ponders whether Egyptian mummies rode bikes.

Of course, for Cunk, all experts and prognosticators should be approached with skepticism. Colleagues can deceive or mislead us, especially when trying to avoid blame, an uncomfortable topic, or a project they can’t get that excited about. Mindreader: The New Science of Deciphering What People Really Think, What They Really Want, and Who They Really Are, the latest fascinating book by Dr. David Lieberman, a psychotherapist and “lie-detector” who instructs FBI and law and security agents, sorts some of this out. Lieberman unpacks how liars tell and sell stories, often long ones, embellishing responses that should be short, simple and plain. How liars tell those stories matters too — and passive voice (“Mistakes were made”) and impersonal pronouns (you and they, not me and mine) can be revealing tells. Discerning leaders will enjoy Lieberman’s practical insights. No one likes to be fooled.

In fact, that very concern might be driving decision-making and strategy at many levels these days. I really enjoyed Foolproof, the wonderful and thought-provoking new book by University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School professor Tess Wilkinson-Ryan, centered on how sugrophobia, the fear of being duped, exploited and played for a sucker, crowds and distorts business negotiations and everyday thinking.

Wilkinson-Ryan, who also holds a doctorate in psychology, teaches Contracts, and she provides countless examples of how regret-aversion — not engaging because something appears too good to be true or lending aid because “someone might be a scammer” — can inhibit creativity, connection and win-win solutions. Her discussion of how some politicians and leaders weaponize the sucker narrative is a must-read for critical thinkers. Small wonder that Cunk believes we’re all deceived by the “facts” about the moon landing and even the very existence of the moon — it’s all spelled out in a Youtube video that smarter people should watch.

Where does all of this lead? Can we refocus our thinking and reclaim integrity, trust, and authenticity in a rapidly changing world? Only time will tell. After all, “thinking about thinking is the hardest sort of thinking there is,” according to Philomena Cunk.

Read in the Boston Business Journal

Authors & Innovators is an occasional column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, law professor, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.  Gennari also teaches Project Entrepreneur, a business fundamentals bootcamp for returning citizens, at BC Law School.

Maybe We Need More “Travels with Charley”

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Thank goodness for dogs. For so many, especially during the last three tense and turbulent years, our dogs have been a source of tactile comfort and unconditional companionship. Dogs also have connected us, especially in parks and public places, allowing us to share our stories and in many ways, our shared humanity. No wonder more than 48 million households now have a dog, a number that increased by more than 11% during the pandemic.

As we begin 2023, we need our dog friends (and poop bags, for those community walks) more than ever. Rising inflation, global conflicts, and rapid technological change have most decisionmakers worried about the direction of the overall economy and their future in it. Will this be another year “gone to the dogs?”

I don’t know, but these days, I’m thinking about an earlier time, a memorable dog, and a gifted writer trying to make sense of a shifting economy, a new generation, and a changing country. In Travels With Charley, John Steinbeck chronicles a cross-country road trip with his travel companion and friend, Charley, a wise and sensitive brown poodle, who helps him connect to people and their revealing economic stories. Published in 1962, the book was among Steinbeck’s last and best, and it set the stage for many important cultural, business, and policy conversations. Could a current savvy thinker with a precocious dog retrace some of Steinbeck’s steps and restart important dialogues today? Sure, but I’d recommend that they prepare by reading a few recent and insightful books.

Maine is among the first states Steinbeck and Charley visit, and there they encounter a listless and unhappy waitress, working paycheck to paycheck in a dead-end job. Echoes of this scene are reflected in business journalist Rick Wartzman’s recent book Still Broke, an engaging must-read history of Walmart and its often-fraught relationship with its frontline store employees. As one of the nation’s largest employers, Walmart has substantial influence, and its determined efforts to improve wages, training and benefits for a more full-time workforce are impressive. Still, Wartzman argues, Walmart and other influential companies can only get us so far. Congress needs to do more — actually, a lot more — given that 80% of Americans need to earn at least $20 per hour to make a living family wage. Six decades after Steinbeck’s trek, many American families still struggle just to stay in place.

Continuing into the Midwest, Charley helps Steinbeck meet people in Ohio and Indiana for a conversation about local and national news. In contrast to New Englanders, these folks are eager and quick to engage visitors and learn more about new and different places. Turns out that stories, especially local ones well told, were a critical source of inspiration, innovation and imagination to readers and listeners across communities. That’s still true, according to Quinnipiac dean Chris Roush, author of the terrific book The Future Of Business Journalism: Why It Matters For Wall Street And Main Street. The consolidation of business media has led to nonstop national coverage of public markets and big companies, much to the detriment of local stories that matter to the entrepreneurs, business owners and policymakers trying to build and sustain their own economic communities. Roush’s clear and direct suggestions for training young business journalists and expanding local-media business models are incredibly important. Steinbeck, who also understood the connective power of shared stories, would agree wholeheartedly.

Finally, Steinbeck and Charley visit California and the West, where Steinbeck laments the steady march of technology and its uncertain impact on society. We have much the same worries today, even more so in an interdependent, interconnected world. For an update on those pressing concerns, I’d strongly recommend reading two books in tandem: Chip War: The Fight For The World’s Most Critical Technology, a detailed history of the semiconductor industry and its vital importance to national security, by Tufts professor Chris Miller, and also Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict With China, an urgent and provocative assessment of the global economy and shifting geopolitical alliances, by Tufts professor Michael Beckley and Johns Hopkins professor Hal Brands.

As Steinbeck notes toward the end, we all move on from a “permanent and changeless past.”  We need to understand, as he last did, standing among the redwoods, that the future will arrive and “we can’t go home again.” For 2023 and beyond, we all might handle that insight just a little bit better with a trusted four-legged friend at our side.

Read in the Boston Business Journal

 Authors & Innovators is an occasional column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, law professor, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.  Gennari also teaches Project Entrepreneur, a business fundamentals bootcamp for returning citizens, at BC Law School.

Top Ten Must-Reads from 2022

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As we close out another busy and eventful year, you may be looking for that perfect gift for a colleague, friend or family member. What better gifts than new ideas and wisdom! I’ve read some great books this year, and I’m happy to recommend 10 titles that should appeal to the most entrepreneurial minds on your list.

Top 10 Books on Entrepreneurship and Business:

This Is What It Sounds Like: What The Music You Love Says About You

I loved this terrific book by neuroscientist Ogi Gas and music producer and neuroscientist Susan Rogers, who also collaborated with Prince on Purple Rain.What does music cognition have to do with business? Well, your taste in music and why you prefer jazz over reggae, or punk over classic rock, can reveal a lot about how your one and only brain works, and in turn, how your style, originality, and personality influence everything you do and the experiences you want to have — as a person, as a leader, and in the world. Want to know more about someone else? Ask about their favorite songs.

Benjamin Franklin’s Last Bet

University of Pittsburgh professor Michael Meyer lays out the fascinating story of how Franklin, on his death, gifted $2,000 pounds to each of his hometowns of Boston and Philadelphia to establish microloan funds to jumpstart the careers and businesses of coopers, blacksmiths, carpenters and others in the “leather apron” class. What happened after that is a fascinating tale of two cities.

Rebel With A Clause

Roving grammarian Ellen Jovin visited all 50 states with her folding Grammar Table and fielded questions from interested and interesting visitors. Turns out a LOT of people care about grammar and Jovin’s entertaining and engaging explanations of Oxford commas, sentence starting conjunctions, and non-referential pronouns–among many others–make for informative and fun reading. This book is for the language lover on your list … or “whomever.”

Purpose + Profit: How Business Can Lift Up The World

HBS Professor George Serafeim tells leaders that they can and should deploy their own skills and knowledge to improve the world. The purpose and focus of business is changing from a model of shareholder primacy toward a broader expectation that companies contribute to society. Serafeim provides plenty of data and lots of examples of how companies and investors can implement purpose driven initiatives.

When Women Lead

CNBC’s Julia Boorstin chronicles the challenges, qualities, and insights of more than 120 successful women leaders. The book is unique for its breadth, depth and data, and Boorstin’s storytelling of how and why inspired women tend to build strong, purpose-driven companies while establishing new patterns in male-dominated markets is sharp and insightful.

The Man Who Broke Capitalism: How Jack Welch Gutted the Heartland and Crushed the Soul of Corporate America

In this provocative, thought-provoking book, New York Times business reporter David Gelles traces Welch’s ascent at GE and his unrelenting focus on maximizing shareholder value, which meant pretty much exclusively an always-increasing stock price. Gelles envisions an emerging inclusive and mission-oriented business model for future corporate leaders.

Build For Tomorrow

Entrepreneur Magazine Editor Jason Feiffer shows and tells us how we can best adapt to continuing and sometimes uncomfortable change. The numerous stories, examples, and use cases are fun to read and Feiffer’s advice is spot on.

Golden: The Power of Silence in a World Of Noise

An incredibly absorbing and insightful new book by leadership experts Justin Zorn and Leigh Marz. Readers will value their countless examples and practical tips on recognizing opportunities for restorative silence every day, every week and all the time.

The Art of Insubordination: How To Dissent And Defy Effectively

George Mason University Professor Todd Kashdan traces the history and theory of dissent and change in a variety of contexts. This is an easy-to-read, step-by-step playbook on how to become a persuasive and patient dissenter.

Influence Is Your Superpower

Yale Professor Zoe Chance’s smart, practical book shows how to build and use your unique influence. You don’t need to be a celebrity, YouTube influencer, or celebrated expert to give actionable advice and shape behavior.

This year, whether your list includes audio or old-school book readers, give the gift of insight and innovation and support your local independent bookstore.  We’ll all be better off if you do.

Read in the Boston Business Journal

 Authors & Innovators is an occasional column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, law professor, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.  Gennari also teaches Project Entrepreneur, a business fundamentals bootcamp for returning citizens, at BC Law School.

The Sound of Leadership

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This fall, former rock climber and current billionaire Yvon Chouinard announced that he was giving everything away. Patagonia, the iconic outdoor clothing company Choinard founded almost 50 years ago, soon will be owned by a uniquely structured nonprofit trust that will use future profits to fight climate change.

“Instead of ‘going public’,” Choinard explained, “we’re going purpose.’”

For some executives, this was music to their ears. In fact, for many, this is exactly how leaders should sound and what they should do in a post-pandemic, more purpose-driven business world. So, what can a thoughtful executive do to prepare for the turbulence and tension that comes with wanting to do well while also doing good? As usual, you can start with a few good books, but this time, only after listening to a few great songs.

Wait — which songs? Well, that’s entirely and uniquely up to you, according to neuroscientists Susan Rogers and Ogi Ogas, authors of the new and wonderful book, This Is What It Sounds Like: What The Music You Love Says About You. Your taste in music and why you prefer jazz over reggae, or punk over classic rock, can reveal a lot about how your one and only brain works, and in turn, how your style, originality, and personality influence everything you do and the experiences you want to have — as a person, as a leader, and in the world. Want to know more about someone else? Ask about their favorite songs. Rogers, a faculty member at Berklee College of Music and one of the most successful female record producers of all time, knows a lot about the music business and the leadership values of creativity, grit, and challenging convention. Her work as Prince’s chief sound engineer for Purple Rain and her stints as producer for Barenaked Ladies and many others ground her many incisive observations about human cognition. Rogers belongs in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and this book belongs in your library.

So, will knowing why I like classical music will help me be a better leader? Quite possibly, according to Wharton Dean Erika James and Simmons University President Lynn Wooten, authors of the smart, practical new book, The Prepared Leader. Self-awareness and preparation are critical for today’s mission-driven leaders who need to strike a balance among profits, people, and planet. Seeing crisis as opportunity isn’t easy, but James and Wooten thoughtfully frame the necessary skills. In fact, they point out, prepared leadership can be a lot like jazz, the music genre reflecting the most collaboration and improvisation, with leadership rotating as the music/circumstance flows and changes.

Indeed, leaders who can more deeply hear their own music also can more capably communicate, inspire, and make sustainable change. A useful guide for that discernment is The Answer is You: A Guidebook To Creating A Life Full Of Impact, by Alex Amouyel, executive director of MIT’s Solve Initiative. This is a rich, deep, and thoughtful book for both emerging and established leaders who want to solve real problems using their own distinct “superpowers.” Amouyel encourages intentional thinking, noting that “your life and your potential impact are more than just your job” and that we are all diminished when we define ourselves by our title rather than our talents. HBS Professor George Serafeim sees this mindset too and in his new book, Purpose + Profit: How Business Can Lift Up The World, he tells leaders that they can and should deploy their own skills and knowledge to improve the world. The purpose and focus of business is changing from a model of shareholder primacy toward a broader expectation that companies contribute to society. Serafeim provides plenty of data and lots of examples of how companies and investors can implement purpose driven initiatives to attract and motivate employees, broaden strategy to include constituencies, and build sustainable competitive advantage.  Entrepreneurs launching B corporations and experienced leaders trying to figure out where to start will find this to be an incredibly helpful and hopeful book.

How will your purpose-driven leadership sound? Consider the timeless advice of the late, wise, and thoughtful Howard Thurman: “The sound of the genuine is flowing through you. Don’t be deceived and thrown off by all the noises that are a part even of your dreams, your ambitions, so that you don’t hear the sound of the genuine in you … because that is the only true guide that you will ever have, and if you don’t have that you don’t have a thing.”

Read in the Boston Business Journal

 Authors & Innovators is an occasional column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, law professor, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.  Gennari also teaches Project Entrepreneur, a business fundamentals bootcamp for returning citizens, at BC Law School.

The Pleasing Appeal of Harry Styles

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Harry Styles, right now the most famous entertainer on the planet, rose to acclaim as a member of the boy band One Direction. His catchy, confessional lyrics, gender-neutral retro style, and upbeat, ineffable charm on stage have made him an icon. The 28-year-old singer-songwriter easily fills stadiums across the U.S. and beyond, and he soon will appear in several soon-to-be released films.

As the dad of a superfan, I’m long aware of his renown. (Harry, remember that small SUV that tailed your tour bus in the Boston area, the one blasting As It Was and Watermelon Sugar, with the girls screaming “HARRY!!!” at every stoplight?… Thanks for not pressing charges.) Styles is indeed a generational talent and with thoughtful choices, hard work, and a bit of luck, his entertainment career will continue its soaring trajectory. Yet, I’m less interested in his next album (Harry’s House is all-around solid; good luck topping that!) and more focused on his entrepreneurial work, and more specifically, his newly launched, eco-friendly, consumer goods company: Pleasing. Building a brand into a business is challenging and I hope Harry will consider a few business-oriented books alongside those new scripts he’ll be reading in the coming months.

Pleasing.com launched last year, starting with nail and skin care products made from sustainable and plant-based ingredients as well as apparel from recycled and organic fabric, some of which was modeled by Mick Fleetwood, another super-fan dad. Harry’s partner in the venture, Emma Spring, is his former assistant. Kudos to Harry for recognizing the power and potential of a woman-co-founder. He and Emma will want to read When Women Lead, the upcoming book by CNBC tech correspondent Julia Boorstin, who chronicles the challenges, qualities, and insights of more than 120 successful women leaders. The book is unique for its breadth, depth and data, and Boorstin’s storytelling of how and why inspired women tend to build strong, purpose-driven companies while establishing new patterns in male-dominated markets, is sharp and insightful. We need more books that challenge set narratives and expand the definition of effective leadership beyond men. Pleasing seems to incorporating some of Boorstin’s “Learning Lessons” already.

Of course, Boorstin and others would advise Harry and Emma not to go it alone or to rely solely on outside professionals, investment bankers, consultants and legal advisors. As Pleasing expands, they’ll need a broader leadership team and advice informed by real experience to scale.  For more on that, they should read Build Your Board, Build Your Business, by economist, investor, and entrepreneur Barbara Clarke, the new, engaging, read-in-one-sitting guide to the basics and benefits of building an effective board for first-time entrepreneurs. Of course, building a board is more than just adding inexperienced celebrities as advisors. Harry and Emma need an intentional strategy of enlisting people who can be true thought partners in their mission-driven strategy. The best board members are selfless, honest, objective, experienced, loyal, and along the way, willing to engage in healthy, necessary, and uncomfortable conversations about operations, money, and growth. For more on that, I’d recommend the new second edition of Startup Boards: A Field Guide To Building and Leading An Effective Board of Directors, by author/ venture capitalist Brad Feld and entrepreneurs Matt Blumberg and Mahendra Ramsinghani, especially the chapters on board recruiting, relationship dynamics, and critical differences between advisory boards and “real” boards of directors. Also, Harry should call Rihanna. She’s busy with her billion-dollar Fenty cosmetics line, but she certainly knows the industry and may have time to be on Pleasing’s board.

Finally, although Harry is continuing his ambitious tour through New York, Austin, Chicago and then Europe, he and Emma will need to remain in close contact about Pleasing’s operations, product development, and marketing support for aligned non-profits. Founder communication shouldn’t be delegated to third parties or left to an email or text from a private plane. Harry should read The Art of Conscious Conversation, the incisive upcoming book by communications expert and mediator Chuck Wisner, which offers practical tips on listening, reflecting, and collaborating with team members, business partners, and family. Given that Harry’s lyrics tap the emotions beneath the surface of common conversations, this book is a must-read for him. He’ll definitely need more Late Night Talking.

Pleasing seems to be off to a good start in a crowded, competitive space.  Fortunately, Harry is a daring original, willing to try new approaches that get noticed. Going forward, that’s undoubtedly what will matter the most.

Read in the Boston Business Journal

 Authors & Innovators is an occasional column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, law professor, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.  Gennari also teaches Project Entrepreneur, a business fundamentals bootcamp for returning citizens, at BC Law School.

Chocolate, Capitalism, and a Sweet Approach

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Last year, as we emerged from our pandemic cocoons, Americans filed more than 5.4 million new business applications, according to U.S. Census figures. I know — we incorporated more than three dozen of them, a number that seems to increase with each new year.

Some were formed by workers who were part of the Great Resignation, others by tech founders who always wanted to be their own boss, and still more by entrepreneurs who feel the urgency to be part of something larger, a new generation of builders committed to changing the way business, capitalism and our economy actually work. When advising these amazing, energetic risk takers, I’m thinking often these days of chocolate, and well, more specifically, the example of Mars Inc., the global and iconic American company responsible for such confectionary miracles as Milky Way bars, Twix, and M&Ms, as well as pet food and related products. Judging from the new and soon-to-be-released business books that I have recently read, I am not alone.

Founded by the Mars family, privately held and headquartered in Virginia, Mars has been around for more than 100 years and employs more than 130,000 people worldwide. Its owners, the family’s fourth generation, are famously tight-lipped and publicity shy, but that hasn’t stopped commentators from touting the company’s consistent and time-tested “old school” strategy of balancing profits, valuing people and working alongside outside stakeholders to solve community problems. This is an enviable and admirable path that, according to some business experts, too many U.S. companies have lost along the way. According to The New York Times business reporter David Gelles, author of The Man Who Broke Capitalism: How Jack Welch Gutted the Heartland and Crushed the Soul of Corporate America, at least some the fault lies with media-created business heroes such as Jack Welch, the late and formerly much-lauded CEO of General Electric. Gelles traces Welch’s ascent at GE and his unrelenting focus on maximizing shareholder value, which meant pretty much exclusively an always-increasing stock price. In Gelles’ telling, Welch’s use of mass layoffs, rank-and-yank firings, relentless acquisitions, and creative accounting, were key tools in remaking a staid and steady GE into a Wall Street juggernaut that enriched institutional shareholders and a select few executives at the top — while good jobs were outsourced, corporate culture was decimated and worker wages and benefits suffered staggering declines in comparison. Certainly not the Mars path, and whether or not you will agree with Gelles, his provocative and lucid book is most definitely worth a read.

So, what should the thoughtful entrepreneur do in charting the path for a better, Mars-influenced venture — while enjoying a Snickers for inspiration? To start, build some perspective and get Launchpad Republic, the upcoming book by entrepreneur investor Howard Wolk and Harvard Business Review editor and historian John Landry, which offers a rich and detailed history of entrepreneurialism’s unique roots in America. Wolk and Landry observe that  “entrepreneurship is often a form of rebellion,” and transformative things have occurred and often still happen when people take on the status quo. Wolk and Landry reveal that certain new challenges are versions of familiar problems and we all must work harder for more inclusive entrepreneurship and the evolved stakeholder capitalism necessary for an innovative economy.

For history’s sake, then, let’s acknowledge that we are living through change, turmoil and volatility. We need Skittles, and possiblyStarbursts, more than ever. Yet uncertainty can be motivating, and we should lean into it, according to Jason Feifer, Entrepreneur Magazine editor and author of the forthcoming book: Build for Tomorrow. Feifer says we experience change in phases: panic, adaptation, feel for a new normal and then, ultimately, “wouldn’t go back.” A creative storyteller with a keen sense of history and business, Fiefer shares numerous and memorable examples of finding opportunity in change. So much of this is about finding purpose, whether that’s a soon-to-be obsolete wall cleaner transforming into Play-Doh or the revelation that people seek out celebrities not for a treasured interaction but instead for a quick selfie that will attract more likes from friends. When starting a new business, enhancing an established one, or designing a new product, Feifer urges us continually to ask: What is this for?

For Mars, that reportedly means retaining less than 10% in annual profits and reinvesting the rest in product innovation, employee benefits and initiatives such as sustainability and a worldwide living wage. Whether you sell services, develop new technologies, or make products like Lifesavers, I think we all can agree on one thing: that’s a pretty sweet approach.

Read in the Boston Business Journal

 Authors & Innovators is an occasional column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, law professor, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.  Gennari also teaches Project Entrepreneur, a business fundamentals bootcamp for returning citizens, at BC Law School.

Everybody Wants to Rule the World

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Back in the 1980s, the British pop group Tears for Fears produced one of the most memorable songs of the last four decades. Everybody Wants to Rule the World topped music charts back in 1985, and Rolling Stone recently ranked the song among its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It’s a rich, catchy song with lush guitar solos and memorable lyrics that speak to the often-unsettling human need for control, dominance and influence.

Ironically, the working title of the song in the studio was “Everybody Wants To Go To War.” I’m hearing that song a lot in my head these days, given the tragic and unnecessary war in Ukraine, and it has me thinking about bad decisions and unfortunate patterns that so many of us see in our own personal and professional lives. Every organization, public and private, large and small, could benefit from more reflection, understanding, and independent thinking, and for those CEOs, managers, and elected officials interested in better, more consensus-based decisions, I’d recommend a few new books.

How often have you heard: “It’s not personal, it’s just business” after a decision? That’s never entirely true, and in Emotional: How Feelings Shape Our Thinking, CalTech Professor Leonard Mlodinow explains that all decisions — good and especially bad — are grounded in part by our uniquely personal emotions and core body functions at the time. This is a fascinating chronicle of the evolutionary roots of the mind-body connection, where feelings come from, and how those with “emotional intelligence,” the ability to understand the feelings of others, excel in business, politics, and day-to-day interactions. Life is busy and we all must make decisions and interact with people throughout the day, even when we are angry, upset, bored, distracted or hungry.

Think this doesn’t matter? Ask anyone up for parole. Who knew that parole boards granted requests 60% more often when the hearing was the first of the day or just after a break or lunch? Mlodinow provides plenty of other interesting data on the bio-roots of motivation and determination, and he encourages all of us to assess our own emotional profile so we can understand ourselves, make better decisions, and also recognize patterns in others. Small wonder that we’re already hearing more about the role of emotion in wartime leaders’ decision making these days.

So if strategic decisions, some good, and others tragically bad, are shaped by emotion, how can we help a leader or a team avoid adverse outcomes? With your influence, according to Yale Professor Zoe Chance and her smart, funny new book, Influence Is Your Superpower. You need not be a celebrity, YouTube influencer, or celebrated expert to give actionable advice and shape behavior. Charisma, she explains, isn’t something you are — it’s what you do through word framing, body language, and by leaning in to others with deep, authentic listening and intention.

I liked her take on how individual influence can be contagious and lead to broader, collective action among people and organizations and her advice on framing negotiations around three questions: How could this be even better for me? How could this be even better for them? Who else could benefit? will be especially valuable for teams trying to find common ground in difficult situations. This thoughtful framing could work for nations in conflict too.

Of course, ineffective leadership, entrenched systems, and toxic cultures may not change overnight.  Change takes time and often requires subtle and everyday acts of disobedience. In The Art of Insubordination: How To Dissent And Defy Effectively, George Mason University Professor Todd Kashdan traces the history and theory of dissent and change in a variety of contexts. Non-conformity is hard for us humans and we take comfort from the familiarity of the collective status quo. We like to fit in; we avoid conflict. Kashdan’s easy-to-read, step-by-step playbook on how to become a persuasive and patient dissenter who finds allies and builds consensus incrementally is incredibly persuasive. So too his advice on how adding dissenters to teams — even just one — can result in broader perspectives and better decisions over time. As we are all seeing on the global stage and especially in Ukraine, rebels matter.

Four decades ago, Tears for Fears captured the tension between conflict and peace in the human condition in a song. They’ve now released a new album with songs about life, love, and fraught choices.  As we sort out how far-reaching and impactful decisions are influenced and made, seems like we still have plenty to learn.

 Authors & Innovators is an occasional column by Larry Gennari, a transactional lawyer, law professor, and chief curator of Authors & Innovators, an annual business book and ideas festival.  Gennari also teaches Project Entrepreneur, a business fundamentals bootcamp for returning citizens, at BC Law School.